NFL 18 Game Season Coming

[Chism]

Thought's anyone!

I myself like the thought of an 18 game season by reducing the pre season by 2 but i dont know if this will happen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100826/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_nfl_meetings

ATLANTA – NFL owners are eager to increase the regular season from 16 to 18 games.
The players aren't so sure.
During a five-hour meeting at a posh hotel in downtown Atlanta, the push to add two more games to the regular season picked up steam Wednesday — at least among those who sign the checks.

Goodell pointed out that the league already has the right to impose an 18-game schedule — and keep four preseason games for each team — under the current labor agreement with the players. But that contract expires after this season, and it's clear the expanded schedule will be a central issue in talks on a new collective bargaining agreement.

 

[usalion]

Won't happen without some pretty big concessions coming from the owners. Players hold the whip hand here, I think.

 

[Mooster7]

I'm greatly opposed to it. The 4-16 season in place now is well balanced. No reason to knock something off kilter just because you can. I hate that.

PREASEASON: Most of the talk I've heard from those who are pro 18, is to reduce the preaseason to 2 games. That's a perfectly terrible idea. It takes all of camp and every single one of those 4 games to figure out how to cut to 53. If no one else, this is something the coaches don’t like. I like all aspects of NFL football from the draft to the Super Bowl. The preseason is its own thing and I like it. I watch these games for different reasons than I would watch camp, regular season games or the postseason. How do you prepare for a 16 game season with only two pre games let alone an 18 game season? That’s way off balance.

THE REGULAR SEASON GRIND: Rookies just out of college have a hard time adjusting to the long, grueling 16 game season. ‘Nuff said there. What about the older players? Especially Offensive linemen? Those guys play through intense pain all year long and just manage to limp their way through to the end. Two more games of that and we haven’t yet began the playoffs? Once an NFL player is 30 he is considered long in the tooth. Players older than that are practically grandfathers and if they stay at it too long they can develop chronic physical problems from all the abuse their bodies take. There are a lot of former NFL players gimping around like 80 year old men and they’re not much past 40. Compared to the mean population, they have a much higher than ordinary average onset of arthritis and other degenerative diseases related to trauma. Don’t get me wrong, I love the violence of the sport, these guys are well paid and they want to play. But two more games per season. That’s over-working your horses, I think. What if you have an otherwise great team, but then some of your best players can’t perform in the postseason?

THE POSTSEASON: If the owners or the NFL execs want to extend the season, I’m convinced they should do it by adding two more Wild Card teams per conference and having more postseason play. As a Chiefs fan, I can tell you exactly how much it sucked in 2005 to go 10-6 and not even get a Wild Card berth. Meanwhile the Patriots when 10-6 themselves and won their piss weak division. That’s stuff for a different rant, but it clearly illustrates the balance it would bring to add games to the playoffs and not the regular season. A 10-6 team would certainly make it. People used to argue that Wild Card teams always wash out but I think the 05 Steelers and the 07 Giants have hushed up all that nonsense. Winning 9 games is never a guaranteed ticket to the playoffs, but 10 sure as hell should be. Adding teams and games to the postseason balances out the playoff ladder.

DIVISIONAL CONSIDERATIONS: The NFL went to a 16 game season over 30 years ago. Before that most of a team’s games were divisional. That made a Divisional Championship crucially important but lacked some balance. After the 1977 it was at half. The Division was important but the Wild Card gained in stature. It was only three years later that the Raiders won the Super Bowl as a Wild Card. After the 2002 realignment, only six of a team’s 16 games are divisional. Actually that’s just great and well balanced. The division games are still vitally important, the Wild Card has gained in stature and each team can be more easily compared with other teams around the league by direct play. It’s almost perfect. Now we only need to add more Wild Card teams in the post season and then there would be a perfect balance with the 30 year changes. Going to 18 would absolutely spoil this. With 18 games it’s not only mathematically possible but statistically very likely that in a short time a team could be swept by all the other teams in their division yet become the “Division Champion” due to record. How ****ed is that? Follow me. That would make Divisions completely unimportant. If the Divisions are unimportant, then aren’t the Conferences also unimportant? If the Conferences are unimportant then so is the Super Bowl, isn’t it?

ROGER GOODEL IS A MEDDLING BASTARD: That pretty much says it all. I like Roger in a lot of ways. I like how he holds players accountable for their behavior on and off the field. He’s a pretty stiff prick when it comes to that. But when it comes to the rest it’s as though all he wants to do is have a legacy of changing the most s**t regardless of balance. He needs to sit on his hands. If he wants to do anything at all he could bring about a couple of expansion teams. That would mean more overall games without going to 18. Los Angeles is like a vacant vineyard sitting there with all that empty potential. No hurries though. The most important thing Roger should be thinking about every second of every day is resolving the CBA. Which brings me to my final point.

RED HERRING: All of this talk of the NFL going to an 18 game season could just be executive and owner bullshit. When they do sit at the table to reach a CBA, it’s going to be a push pull, tug-o-war type fight. The owners know the players are going to be asking for way too much money and probably way too many other concessions. That’s always the best way to enter a bargaining process, isn’t it? So all the owners have to do is raise the great big haunting spectre of an 18 game season then offer to drop it if the players make concessions on some of their most outrageous demands. So all the talk could actually be beneficial in the end as long as it helps resolve the CBA rather than hamper any progress with it. Dunno. That’s just a theory.

Peace,

 

[ERead]

It is going to happen, eventually: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/09000d5d81a03c38/Is-it-time-for-18

 

[Galactic]

Yep, Mooster is right on why it should not change from 4/16 however ERead is right that it prob will. I know that BB was against changing it for some of the reasons Mooster pointed out and on the other hand Bob Kraft wants 2/18 as many owners do, go figure. More profit for the NFL but at what cost to the game if more injuries and overall wear and tear do occur to players bodies? Also the lesser quality play at least at the beginning of the season due do to less training esp for rookies before the season starts? Its a a give and take. I prefer the current settings, but $$ will prob win out here and there will be more of that with this deal.

 

[Woodson]

Brilliant points & overall posting Mooster. Galactic summed it up in one paragraph... I'm not sure the 2/18 will last long before the wheels fall completely off.. can see more CONS than PROS for 2/18. Don't the players earn enough as it is??? I heard Drew Brees saying something about the uncertainty of the new CBA not favouring players.. (sorbent can sponsor you instead FFS!!) went along the lines that players wives will need medical attention when having babies ect and how 'difficult' it would be to cover the costs.... is Drew Brees fair dinkum?

How blessed are these people to be living high life and given every opportunity to earn more on their next contract... the guy has won a Super Bowl for a city that doesn't have much to celebrate in sports and he'll be lauded in Nawlins until he dies... that's the easiest $$$$$ he'll ever earn for just keeping up appearances.

 

[smiths]

I get to watch 2 more games every year, works for me. (I don't watch preseason)

 

[LarryBrown24]

I posted this is another thread a while back and my view hasn't changed

Would prefer the current setup (4+16) as the pre season games might seem excessive but they are important dress rehearsals, blowing out the cobwebs and especially for the many backup players on a roster. I'm just glad there is no pathetic mini-competition in preseason like the afl. Also, regular season atm is quality over quantity. But change is inevitable so I'm ready to embrace it.

Currently teams play 12 intraconference (same) and only 4 interconference (other), so surely the two will come from the latter. Looking at the Cleveland schedule example below, they are playing the NFC North, and the following season NFC South so the two games could be against similarly placed teams from the other two divisions, which would be the Rams and Redskins. Any other ideas on where the two games will come from?

green - example team, Cleveland
yellow - play these teams once
blue - play twice
pink - extra two opponents